1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to fruit conveying apparatus, and more particularly, it pertains to apparatus for feeding fruit in transversely spaced single files.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,864 to W. C. Belk illustrates a high speed feeder adapted for use with a citrus fruit juice extractor. The juice extractor generally described in the Belk patent includes several lower cups that are rigidly mounted in a linear array, several upper cups that are reciprocatably mounted directly above the lower cups, and a drive mechanism connected to the upper cups. The upper and lower cups include circumferentially spaced fingers which are adapted to interdigitate to compress a fruit as the upper cups are lowered to thereby extract the juice from the fruit. The high speed feeder specifically described in the Belk patent includes a hopper that is adapted to receive fruit in single files from a bulk supply conveyor and a rotary feeder that receives the fruit from the hopper and feeds the fruit to the extractor when the upper cups are in their elevated positions.
The hopper shown in the aforementioned Belk patent includes a metal frame structure which includes a plurality of troughs that are uniformly transversely spaced across the hopper to define fruit feeding lanes and that are separated by upright wall members. An eccentric shaft drive mechanism is used to oscillate the entire frame structure to cause the fruits to roll or slide down the respective lanes onto support bridges. The rotary feed mechanism engages the fruit supported on the bridges, elevates them to positions above the lower cups, and then propels the fruit into the lower extractor cups.
A problem with the hopper shown in the aforementioned Belk patent is that irregularly shaped fruit, such as tangerines or lemons, tend to become clogged between the upright wall members. For example, when tangerines are handled, the flat portions thereof tend to bind against each other to prevent the individual tangerines from moving rapidly down the troughs in response to the oscillation thereof. In view of the severity of this clogging problem, operators are sometimes provided to oversee the operation of the hopper and to dislodge any fruit clogged in the hopper lanes.
Another problem of the hopper shown in the Belk patent relates to the throughput capacity of the hopper. Recent efforts have been made to increase the extraction rate of the aforementioned type of citrus fruit extractor to 150 fruit per cup per minute. At such a high required feed rate, it is anticipated that the prior art hopper will not be operative to feed fruit to match the speed of the extractor. It will be recognized that this feeding problem cannot be solved by simply mounting the prior art hopper at a steeper angle relative to the horizontal, because such increased inclination will cause the fruit in each lane to tumble over each other and to accumulate at the lower end of the troughs thereby tending to cause the feeding of more than one fruit at a time to the rotary feeder.